Harrington HealthCare to cut jobs, hours

Harrington HealthCare System, which had experienced growth and offered modest raises to its 1,300 full- and part-time employees in recent years, had a down year and will lay off 12 employees.

The system will also shave two to eight hours from another dozen workers' weekly schedules, freeze wages for its entire workforce, and will leave nine vacant jobs unfilled, Edward H. Moore, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit facility, said in an interview today.

A total of 20 jobs are being eliminated, but eight people in those positions will be offered the chance to move to other needed jobs, he said.

The 114-bed hospital in Southbridge in recent years has added a cancer center and satellite medical facilities in Webster and Charlton.

Mr. Moore said he began making the announcement to impacted employees today and will continue to do so in forums this week. For that reason, he did not specify which jobs had been cut, but he noted they were clinical and non-clinical positions across a number of areas.

Mr. Moore said the system had four or five years of “dramatic, wonderful growth” that didn't continue at the pace it was used to in 2012 for a variety of reasons, from government funding to changes to insurance plans and the economy.

“We needed to take stock of that and make adjustments and changes,” he said.

On the revenue side, Mr. Moore said, the system will try to find ways to encourage and create program offerings to enhance services to the community. There is a push to have Fallon Senior health plan be the product of choice for this region, and Harrington is participating, he said. In general, Harrington is developing stronger ties to Fallon Community Health Plan.

He said Harrington's challenges are similar to other systems, in that Medicaid doesn't pay what's needed and Medicare is paying less than it used to, and “we're under pressure from employers to keep the costs down.”

Harrington is still in a strong financial position, particularly on its balance sheet, he said.

“We've made a lot of investments and improvements,” he said. “We have a strong balance sheet that has a large investment portfolio and relative to that, we're not carrying heavy debt. We're in a good position with our bankers. When you look at our ratios, I'm pleased with the hospital's financial long-term future.”

He acknowledged that the concept of losing money on a yearly basis and being comfortable on its balance sheet was difficult for some to understand:

“There are two different analyses and measurements. Some has to do with some belt tightening based on volume and being smart about how you run an organization and take out costs when you have to or can. The other has to do more so with your long-term security about how your balance sheet is structured, almost like assets and liabilities at home.”

Asked if there was concern the system had grown too fast, he said, “I can certainly demonstrate very clearly, if we hadn't done those investments and programs, we would have been in much worse condition to have to take more draconian actions.

In fact, the system will open an office in Spencer. A doctor has been recruited to start there no later than Feb. 1, he said.

“While you need to constrict a little, you also need to keep your eye on where the growth opportunities lie.”